Now completely wheat free! Ask anyone on The Atkins Diet what they miss most from their high-carbohydrate eating days and they'll probably give you three answers: Bread, bread and more bread. Well now this no longer has to be the case. Atkins Diet Bake Mix is a revolutionary low-carbohydrate flour product that Atkins Dieters can use to make delicious breads, as well as muffins, pancakes, and even flour-dredged fried chicken that are 100% compatible with all phases of The Atkins Diet.

20 Reviews

Atkins Bake Mix ? When You Are Deep Into Ketosis?It Almost Tastes Like Bread

Maintaining a low carb diet isn't an easy thing. Pasta, bread, pancakes, muffins, cookies and baked potatoes are things that I absolutely adore  but I am a former carboholic. While I do have cheat days when I toss the diet out the window, for a majority of the time I try to eat as "clean" as possible. Eggs, red meat, fish, tuna, turkey and bacon are staples of my diet. Doing a strict low carbohydrate diet requires a lot of discipline and will power and it doesn't hurt to try and juggle your meals around and have as much variety as possible. One of the hardest things is cooking complete meals for my brood - smelling the biscuits baking, hearing the bubbling of the fettuccini alfredo and baking cookies. Id never deny my kids anything because I was on a diet, but there are days that I have to fight away the urge to go face down in a bowl of cookie dough.

Atkins Diet Bake Mix

When I came across the Atkins Diet Bake Mix I rolled my eyes and thought, another product designed to suck money out of the pockets of dieters. When I finally cracked under the ketosis pressure and purchased a can I had some real mixed feeling about the product and the resulting backed goods. Was all this work and hassle worth it? Did I really want to have to invest 30 minutes into making a small loaf of bread that  lets face it  doesnt really taste like bread? Those are some of the questions that Id ask at the beginning of the low carb phase but the further you get into the diet, the most this looks, smells and actually tastes like real bread. Of course, bread isnt the only thing that you can use this bake mix for  muffins, pancakes, pita breads and pig in a poke just to name a few. Having a canister of this on hand makes it a little easier to stick to my diet when the cravings hit  but when you have to mix, measure, stir, bake and allow it to cool  sometimes the craving passes by time you are done baking or cooking up your treat. See, if you are still insanely hungry or ready to climb the walls for something carb like  chances are the breads and muffins made from this will taste excellent. But if you arent fully into your diet or your craving has passed, there is a very good chance this will taste like something that has been stuck to the bottom of your shoe for a few days.

What Can You Do With It?

Well, interesting question. You can use this for general baking but the results wont be nearly as good as standard flour. You can use this as a substitute for all purpose flour providing that you do a little math. I cup of Atkins Diet Bake Mix equals 1 1/2 cup of regular flour. Ive played around with a few recipes and found that you can make some nice treats with this, but you need to do some planning and a lot of experimentation. Instead of using sugar [which defeats the entire purpose of the mix in the first place] you need to use a sweetener like Nutrasweet or Splenda. Make sure you read the packages to see what the conversion rate is since each of them differ slightly. Then you need to see what else is contained in your recipe  obviously you cant make chocolate chip cookies unless you are using a special type of chocolate. The process of creating unique recipes is mostly trial and error so make sure you keep good notes of what you added, how much you added, baking times and if any special things were needed to create the batch.

You do get a few recipes with the canister and I highly suggest that you read over them while you are still shopping because there are a few items that you will need to have on hand  heavy cream and seltzer being to two that most people dont seem to have on hand. The recipes that are included on the container include pancakes, quick and easy bread and blueberry muffins. You can obtain more recipes at the Atkins site [www.atkinsdiet.com] or check out some of the cookbooks that have been developed for low carb dieters. You can substitute the bake mix for flour but remember to do the conversion of 1 cup bake mix = 1 1/2 cup flour.

Taste

Depending on what you are making, the final product might be mouthwatering and delicious or a rock hard, tartar remover. Watching the temperature is a must when baking with this especially if you are trying to adapt it to mainstream recipes. When I make bread I try to pull it out about a minute and a half before the timer goes off so that it can start cooling off. Ive found that if I leave it in the oven for the recommended bake time, it continues to cook while cooling off which means you are going to end up with a paperweight instead of a load of bread. The pancakes are pretty good but you have to remember not to drown them in syrup  unless you are using a specially formulated syrup that is carbohydrate free. You can also add a tablespoon or two of a sugar free flavoring to your pancakes to give them a little extra kick. I suggest checking out your local health food store for a syrup that is sugar free and low carb. Ive had the best success making pitas and pig in a pokes. The pitas are the basic bread mix but they are quickly pan fried over a high heat. You need to roll out the dough into six uniformed balls then work them into a six to eight inch diameter, poke with a fork to keep them from rising then pan fry them to the desired color. These wont taste exactly like fresh pita breads, but they arent half bad either. I also like to make the pig in a poke treats for when I know I wont have a lot of time to cook or when I will be out all day. I take hot dogs and wrap them in the dough mix, add a little cheese or a few slices of jalapenos inside the wrap and roll it all together. Bake for about 10  15 minutes depending on the size and you have a snack treat that is low carb and pretty darn fun to eat.

Ingredients

The Atkins Diet Bake Mix contains Supro brand isolated soy protein, soy flour, glucono delta lactone, potassium bicarbonate, sodium phosphate, oat fiber, polydextrose and potassium chloride. This bake mix is not a no carb product since it contains Litesse [polydextrose]. Litesse is a sweetener that has become popular for baking and creating low calories, low carbohydrate foods. It has been approved by the FDA [Food & Drug Administration] for use in commercially produced foods and validates the claims that are made about its dietary content. In the past people have confused Litesse with other products such as a low calorie flour or bake mix. After speaking with a representative from Danisco, I was told that Litesse is a universal sweetener that is added to low calorie and low carbohydrate food for taste and flavor. On the package it states that Litesse is a unique type of carbohydrate that the body minimally absorbs, giving you all the baking benefits of conventional flour with very little impact on the blood sugar level.

Price

The price of this has dropped over the past few years. When it was first released it was about $14.00 per container which was one of the reasons I refused to try it out. Now it can be found for about $7.00 - $9.00 a container at most sport nutrition stores as well as large grocery chains. The 20 ounce canister has 18 1/4 cup servings but you will find that you will go through it quickly if you are using it as a substitute for regular baking. If you are an online shopper you can check the numerous sites that carry low and no carb products to see if you can get a better price. Please be sure to check the expiration date on the container to ensure that you are getting a fresh container  especially if you dont plan on using this very often.

Things To Know

I store my canister in the refrigerator. This isnt necessary and I am sure that some people will argue that it harms the product. Simply put, I refuse to deal with bugs and anything that contains any type of sweetener or sweetener by product goes into the fridge. I have never had any problem using this bake mix after it has been refrigerated but if you are going to do this make sure that the plastic lid is securely in place to avoid moisture getting into it or smells from other foods leaking into it. Keep tabs on the expiration date is a key to getting the best baked goods possible. While refrigerating it might extend the life of the product by a few weeks, its generally best to pitch this when the time comes rather than wasting time, effort and ingredients only to end up with something that tastes horrid.

The Bottom Line

If you are doing a strict Atkins diet and want to break up the monotony of eating the same foods each day, this bake mix would be a good investment. If you are a casual dieter that only needs to lose a few pounds, I hate to say it but this would be nothing more than a waste of money. In order to have this be effective and warrant the time, effort and expense you need to be in an ongoing low carb routine to see any real change in your body composition. Now, that doesnt mean that you cant benefit from using this as a substitute for flour when baking  because you most certainly can. The downside is that you will  most of the time  need to play around with the ingredients to perfect the recipe.